1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stitchless garment and a method of manufacture of the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a circular knit garment that eliminates a stitching operation where two garment components are fastened or joined to one another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Traditionally, general every day wearable garments are manufactured using cut-and-sew sections of fabric. The fabric is connected to one another to form a completed clothing article by stitching. The garment or article of clothing is joined or fastened together in the prior art by a threaded needle. The threaded needle arranges an array of threads in sewing, knitting, crocheting or any other suitable manner between predetermined garment components. The predetermined garment components are tightly fastened or joined to one another by these stitches.
In the area of seamless circular knitting technology, garments are produced in a substantially seamless manner. However, there still remains several operations where stitching is required in order to complete the finished article for sale. These stitching operations are laborious and costly and detract from the typically highly productive seamless circular knit manufacturing process.
Seamless circular knitting articles are usually hosiery, lingerie and innerwear. Garments that are circular knit typically lack a physical support structure relative to prior art articles of clothing. This lack of support structure allows for a user to more comfortably move in the seamless article of clothing. However, although the lack of support structure aids in a more comfortable clothing article, any stitching may tend to make the clothing article uncomfortable.
Stitching, although useful in certain circumstances, typically may have unintended and detrimental consequences with seamless circular knit articles. Stitching may cause the inner surface of the garment to become uncomfortable when contacting the skin and body tissues of the user. Stitches that are in contact with the user's skin in active wear and in support type garments may lead to inflammation, irritation bruises and chafes. Inflammation, irritation bruises and chafes may occur at the point of contact of the skin with the seam, or the similar line, ridge, or groove made by fitting, joining, or lapping together two garment components along their edges.
Typically, seams with stitches are rough and compress skin and body tissues. Also, stitches generally are made of a fabric or a material that has a different modulus of elasticity than the remainder of the garment. In addition, seams with stitches may have different stretch properties that cause the seams, unlike the remainder of the garment to restrict athletic movement. In particular, while a front panel and a rear panel of an article of clothing may move and be flexible to movement, the stitch and the seam may resist or otherwise restrict that movement causing the article of clothing to be uncomfortable.
This is especially prevalent in the instance where there exists an enlarged surface area of the seams. The attendant friction resulting between the interaction of the stitches on the seams and the user's skin and body tissues between the inner surface of the garment and the skin of the user results in a detrimental restrictive experience for the user. In the instance of manufacturing a considerable number of articles of clothing, stitching may increase the overall manufacturing costs of the garment and increase the time, and labor costs of manufacturing an individual article of clothing.
What is desired in the art is a method of attaching a first garment component and a second garment component to one another by an adhesive. Several methods of adhering a predetermined garment component to another garment component have been disclosed in the art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,615 to Wong discloses a pucker free garment seam. Wong teaches a method of providing a bonding element and at least a thermally adhesive component. The bonding element is placed along a seam. The seam is formed by positioning a first garment component and the second garment component such that the lower surface of the bonding element contacts the seam at an upper surface of the first garment component. A first set stitch is placed along a side of the seam and then the first garment component is folded over the bonding element to glue and stitch the garment components together and create a pucker free seam.
Although, Wong introduces a bonding element and thermal adhesive, the bonding does not obviate the necessity of stitching the garment. Undoubtedly the garment will remain uncomfortable at the point of contact between the user's body tissues and the set stitch. The stitching will undeniably contact the skin of the user. When engaging in activities, the stitches placed along the side of the seam may cause inflammation, irritation, bruises and chafes at the point of contact of the seams, especially in the instance of active wear and seamless garments.
A flexible article made from a garment having a certain predetermined modulus of elasticity and stretchiness will be reduced to a relatively stiffer garment by adhering, folding over and stitching the respective garment components together. Wong teaches that adhering, folding over and stitching all will undoubtedly reduce or diminish the overall stretchiness of the garment. By placing an adhesive component between any first and second garment components, the overall elasticity of the completed article is reduced. By reverse folding a garment component over the adhesive elasticity is again further reduced.
The prior art is lacking an effective method for fastening a first garment component and a second garment component together using a bonding element that does not reduce the amount of elasticity of the garment. By utilizing an improved seaming method, rather than using uncomfortable seams, improved comfort characteristics and flexibility characteristics can be achieved, while maintaining the necessary structure to allow the user to wear an improved garment with suitable support for engaging in athletic activities.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a method of seaming that has an improved functionality having an elastic adhesive bonding element that enables the manufacturer to more precisely and productively produce an elastic, comfortable and non-irritating garment in a cost effective manner.